Chilean newspaper reproduces antisemitic meme in alcohol advertisement

The Jewish community in Chile has expressed its disgust after the appearance of an advertisement for cheap alcohol that uses a well-known antisemitic meme.

The advert, published by the alcohol company, Arbol Verde, in an edition of one of Chile’s national newspapers, Las Últimas Noticias, features the “Smirking Merchant” meme. This depicts a hook-nosed man with a nefarious grin wearing a head covering and holding banknotes. The meme is thought by many to be a classically antisemitic representation of a Jewish person.

The meme was created in 2001 and accompanied a racist representation of a Black man with a caption that read: “A world without Jews and Blacks would be like a world without Rats and Cockroaches.”

The Jewish Community of Chile responded on Twitter and said that it was “unacceptable advertising alluding to the classic stereotype of a Jew that Nazi propaganda turned into the germ of antisemitism that led to the genocide of six million Jews. Unpresentable way of promoting a product and a serious lack of editing in the media.”

Approximately 18,000 Jews live in Chile, which makes up approximately 0.1 percent of a population of over nineteen million.

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism worldwide.